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Should Roe v. Wade Abortion
Ruling be Over Turned?
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With the 2012 presidential primaries there has been a lot of talk about abortion. All of the leading candidates have taken a pro-life stand and promise, if elected, to work towards making abortion illegal.
It is estimated that well over a million abortions are performed in the USA each year, over 3,500 every day. Why? A few of them may be performed because of rape, insist, or to prevent the likely death of the mother during birth, but most are likely because the pregnant woman does not want to have the child. Should a pregnant woman be able to make that choice?
In addition to religion, pro-life supporters cite morals and ethics as reasons for wanting abortion to be illegal. The fact is that morals and ethics are religion based so religion is main reason there is a pro-life movement. We need to accept that abortion is a religious issue and not a legal issue.
We are supposed to have separation of church and state so if abortion is a religious issue than using religious reasons for making it illegal are not justified. While religion is the real reason, pro-lifers say the an abortion kills a living person and is, therefore, murder.
The Roe v. Wade supreme court decision is what currently allows abortion to be some what legal. The court ruled that that a human fetus does not possess the potential for life until it becomes viable. The viability point is when the fetus stands a chance of living out of the womb, usually at about the 20-25th week of pregnancy. The court ruled a fetus that is not viable is not protected by the Bill of Rights. All but a few states have laws that make most abortions illegal after the viability point.
It is a well established fact that making abortion totally illegal would not stop abortions. It would just send them all underground and, thereby, result in the death of many pregnant women because of improperly performed abortions. In other words, trying to save the life of every fetus would result in the unnecessary death of a great many pregnant women. In October of 2009 a BBC News article cited a report that indicated that 70,000 women die yearly as a result of unsafe abortions. Does that make sense?
Studies have shown that abortions decrease when conception prevention is better promoted and availability of prevention methods is increased. That seems like a much smarter way to decrease abortions. The Catholic church should be severely chastised for their objection to the use of condoms and other prevention methods. They are directly responsible for the death of many of the women who die because they resorted to an unsafe abortion.
I have no problem with a person following their religious convictions regarding abortion. I have a big problem with religious people, and churches, trying to impose their beliefs on everyone. Every woman should have the right to decide for themselves and should have the availability of a safe abortion method.
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